No gaming - ASUS EAH3650 Silent Magic or MSI N95GT MD512Z

hofffam · Post by **hofffam** » Mon Dec 08, 2008 7:22 am

Hi....

I'm upgrading my aging Athlon based system over the holidays.

I do not game. I edit video, photos, and other standard stuff.

So I'm looking for a passively cooled video card. The ASUS was reviewed well here, although the photos of the unit carried by Newegg and Zipzoomfly show a much different heat sink.

The MSI is a bit newer design and uses a heat pipe based cooler with the fins on the cpu side of the card.

Looks like peak power consumption is in the same range for both. Both are < $100.

Your thoughts?

Post by **CA_Steve** » Mon Dec 08, 2008 7:47 am

If only 2D performance is needed, why not go with a 780G mobo and save power, money, and have your passive graphics solution as well?

hofffam · Post by **hofffam** » Mon Dec 08, 2008 8:55 am

Hmmm....gotta admit I have been looking exclusively at LGA 775 motherboards. Haven't bought yet but I'm thinking about the Gigabyte EP45-UD3R.

Lawrence Lee · Post by **Lawrence Lee** » Mon Dec 08, 2008 9:14 am

I'd get a HD 3450.

hofffam · Post by **hofffam** » Mon Dec 08, 2008 9:53 am

Do you know if that ASUS card was released with two different heat sink designs? The Newegg phot has a very different heat sink from the unit reviewed by SPCR and the unit listed on ASUS' website.

mLy! · Post by **mLy!** » Mon Dec 08, 2008 10:10 am

hofffam wrote:Do you know if that ASUS card was released with two different heat sink designs? The Newegg phot has a very different heat sink from the unit reviewed by SPCR and the unit listed on ASUS' website.

yes there are 2 different asus passive ATI 3650 cards

hofffam · Post by **hofffam** » Mon Dec 08, 2008 10:26 am

I see now that those two cards are apparently called the Silent and the Silent Magic. The Silent has the V-engine heat sink design.

Any idea if the Silent Magic (cheaper) is close to the reviewed unit?

Nick Geraedts · Post by **Nick Geraedts** » Mon Dec 08, 2008 12:26 pm

I'm using the Silent Magic version in my workstation at home, and it works just fine. I can't give you exact power draw specs, but it's passively cooled in a fairly cramped environment (see link in sig) without any problems.

quest_for_silence · Post by **quest_for_silence** » Tue Dec 09, 2008 4:30 am

hofffam wrote:Your thoughts?

Beware of any current Nvidia GPU/chipsets, at least right now:

viewtopic.php?t=49572

At those prices, however, I guess that a possibly better and safer option could be the following ATI Radeon HD4650:

http://www.directron.com/h465p512p.html

Regards, Luca

Riffer · Post by **Riffer** » Tue Dec 09, 2008 6:28 am

Lol! - Got my numbering wrong so disregard my post:

I have the EAH3450/HTP/512M.

Not much to say - it works, TV out is good (it may be great, but I don't have much of a video system to test it).

The only issue I have is with the spotty support from ASUS. For example, my card came with a later revision of the firmware than what they have posted on the website. Could there be further revisions that have not been posted? I am using the latest drivers etc. from the website, but I would guess that later versions from ATI would work if ASUS bothered to test and post them.

Card runs at about 49-50 C in my setup, but no lockups or any other problems.

No gaming - ASUS EAH3650 Silent Magic or MSI N95GT MD512Z

No gaming - ASUS EAH3650 Silent Magic or MSI N95GT MD512Z

Re: No gaming - ASUS EAH3650 Silent Magic or MSI N95GT MD512